Mother, Son Plead Not Guilty In Fatal Fire

The Owner Of The Former Stormy's Seafood Restaurant And His Mother Face Charges Of Insurance Fraud.

June 25, 1994|By Jim Leusner of The Sentinel Staff

A mother and son accused of scheming to burn down a New Smyrna Beach restaurant for insurance money in 1991 pleaded not guilty Friday and were freed on $100,000 bail each by a federal judge in Orlando.

Forrest ''Biff'' Utter, 49, and his mother, Alice Pauline Duncan, 70, were released after U.S. Magistrate David Baker ordered Duncan to pledge her home as collateral - and have another son and his wife co-sign both bonds.

Utter also was ordered to wear an electronic bracelet to be monitored by federal court officials.

Both were indicted by a federal grand jury on Thursday, accused in an arson and insurance fraud scheme stemming from the Sept. 2, 1991, fire that destroyed Stormy's Seafood Restaurant.

The three-alarm blaze killed New Smyrna Beach firefighters Doug Sapp and Mark Wilkes, both 28, who were trapped in the structure when their air tanks ran out.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Byron had sought to keep Utter detained on bail because he faces up to life in prison on the charges. He also said Utter, a co-owner in the restaurant with another person, has placed real estate and other assets in the names of other people to evade creditors.

Utter's attorney, Cheney Mason, said his client has been aware of the probe and involved in a related lawsuit for three years, but has not fled. He said the evidence in the case was ''very weak'' and questioned why the indictment was handed up less than two months before the civil trial in which Utter is trying to collect nearly $139,000 from his fire insurance company.

Duncan's lawyer, Sam Masters, said his client was a model citizen and has served as president of the Daytona Beach Medical Center auxiliary.

An affidavit for a search warrant filed by U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent Wayne Bates for the February 1992 search of Utter's home alleged that he had severe financial problems when the fire was intentionally set.

Bates wrote that Utter had missed several restaurant mortgage payments and was in the process of being foreclosed upon. He also owed nearly $1,200 in Volusia County property taxes; $9,650 in state alcohol beverage surcharges; $7,000 in state sales taxes and $71,000 to the Internal Revenue Service, Bates wrote.

Utter's accountant also told agents that the business had been losing money for two years and that Utter failed to file income tax returns in 1989 and 1990.

The indictment also charged that Utter failed to disclose to restaurant insurers that a fire destroyed his home in Williamsburg, Ky., in 1988. He had bought insurance on the structure a month earlier.